Gaddafi investigated over use of drugs for rapes

United Nations: The chief prosecutor for the International Criminal Court has said that he is investigating whether Libyan leader Moammar Gaddafi provided Viagra-type drugs to Libyan soldiers to promote the rape of women during the current conflict.

Luis Moreno Ocampo said on Wednesday his office is collecting evidence on rapes and has become "more convinced" that Gaddafi decided to punish women by using rape as a weapon, which would be a new method in the Libya civil war of instilling fear and trying to control the population.

He told a news conference after briefing the UN Security Council on Darfur that some witnesses confirmed the Libyan government was buying containers of Viagra-type drugs to carry out the policy, and "to enhance the possibility to rape."

The UN Security Council voted unanimously to refer the Libyan crisis to the International Criminal Court.

"We are trying to see who was involved," Moreno Ocampo said. He said it was difficult to know how widespread the use of rape is in Libya.

"We're getting important information," Moreno Ocampo said. "In some areas we had a number of a hundred people raped. The issue for us was, can we attribute these rapes to Gaddafi himself, or is it something that happened in the barracks."

The UN Security Council voted unanimously on February 26 to refer the Libyan crisis to the International Criminal Court, the world's permanent war crimes tribunal.